1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to scaffolds; and more particularly, to improvements in scaffolds for elevationally supporting a fruit picker or the like in the manual picking of fruit for trees.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Certain fruits must be handpicked and handled with care since they bruise easily. Such fruit must be picked when ripe and, since manual labor is quite costly, it is desirable that a great amount of such fruit or the like be picked in a relatively short period of time. Since such manual labor is costly, ladders or the like cannot be used since such procedure is both time consuming and may damage the trees being picked. Accordingly, certain types of apparatuses, such as scaffolds, have been developed which essentially comprise a mobile frame and a crane-like apparatus which supports a perch or the like on which the fruit picker is positioned. The crane-like apparatus is generally movable with respect to the frame.
Since such apparatus is itself costly, there is a need for one which can encircle a fruit tree to be picked and permit one or more pickers to move about the encircled tree and pick fruit from all locations about the tree. There is also a need for such apparatus which will quickly and easily transport the fruit immediately after picking to a desired location.